Lux Lucet

“We are Republicans, and don’t propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion.  We are loyal to our flag.”

–          Dr. Samuel D. Burchard, Presbyterian Minister and Union Civil War Veteran

The account of David’s fight with Goliath is, doubtless, the most famous case of singly combat ever.  Many people, even if they have never so much as opened a Bible have heard of their duel. 

But while the history of what took place is justifiably famous, there is at least one important detail that is often overlooked.  We read how Goliath was wont to come out and taunt Israel and how he, in so many words, double dog dared anyone from Israel’s army to come out and have a go at him one on one. 

Now among those present in Israel’s army was King Saul.  But even he would not dare to challenge Goliath.

If you stop and think about it, that must have been very demoralizing to the Israelites.  After all, a few years prior the Israelites had demanded a king to fight their battles for them like all the other nations.  Well, Israel had its king, but the king wasn’t doing his job.  He wasn’t leading Israel to victory in battle.  Quite the opposite.  He was cowering behind the lines at Goliath’s words just like everyone else.

And it got worse.

It wasn’t as if Goliath came out once or twice, got bored with disrespecting Israel, and gave up.  No, not at all.  If you’ve ever been picked on by a playground bully as a kid, you probably received advice such as, “Just ignore him and he’ll go away.”  Sometimes maybe that’s true.  But what if the bully doesn’t go away?  What if the bully comes back day after day to torment you?     

The Apostle Paul in writing to the Romans notes, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” By saying “as much as it depends on you,” Paul acknowledges that living peaceably with others does not depend solely on you.  Sometimes there are men who want to have a go at you for one reason or another, those who like to pick fights. 

Goliath was one such man.  And he wasn’t the sort of fellow to just go away.

No.  The Scriptures tell us that Goliath would come out and say, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”  And this, Scripture tells us, he did for forty days both in the morning and in the evening. 

So twice a day for forty days, Goliath “defied” the armies of Israel.  And no one did anything.  Not Saul. Not David’s elder brothers.  No one.

Rather, we read, “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” 

Not very inspiring, that.

Into this courage, leadership, and ultimately faith gap strode David, who famously, by God’s grace, won the day.

Today’s American Protestants More Like Saul than Like David      

Now you may wonder why I started a column on the Babylonian Harlot’s – the Babylonian Harlot or Mystery, Babylon the Great as the Apostle John called the Roman Catholic Church-State (RCCS) in Revelation 17 – attack on the United States of America by talking about David and Goliath. 

My point is this, that when I look at the reaction of today’s American Protestant church to the obvious, in-your-face predations of the RCCS, I am reminded more of Saul’s reaction to the giant than David’s. 

It seems that the more Antichrist – the office of the papacy is the Antichrist and Son of Perdition we read about in the new testament – and his Harlot Church attack America, the more God’s people cower in fear. 

Goliath loved getting in Israel’s face.  He loved playing the bully.  And it all was going great for him until one day it suddenly didn’t.  But it took a man of faith and courage to put an end to Goliath’s proud defiance of God’s people.   

In like fashion, the RCCS and its Antichrist pope love getting in the face of American Protestants.  Since it’s football season, I’ll use a football metaphor.  It’s as if Rome is spiking the football in our face and doing a touchdown dance, and no one does anything to put a stop to it. 

The pope and his bishops, cardinals, priests, and nuns lecture American Christians constantly about their (supposed) moral duty to destroy their own nation through mass welfare migration, immigration, and refugee resettlement of people, many of whom are difficult if not impossible to assimilate.  And not only is there a moral duty, these liars tell us, for Americans to take in the people, but we have an obligation to pay for our own dispossession as well. 

And what do we hear from Protestant pulpits about this shameful, daily dissing of our faith of the nation our forefathers built?

Crickets for the most part.

But it gets even worse. 

In some cases, putatively Protestant teachers actually internalize Rome’s immigration lies and begin spouting the same socialist, nation-destroying immigration nonsense as do the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, and nuns of Rome.

Now it may well be, and I’m of a mind to believe that it is the case this day in America, that there are 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

But I think we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what are we going to do now that the Harlot Church and her pope are in our face?  Are we going to be as Saul and his men and be dismayed and greatly afraid?

Now there are reasons, ultimately not good ones, but reasons nonetheless, to be afraid. 

First, there is a lack of knowledge.  God said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”  And we see this every day here in America.  If not literally perishing, many Christians, perhaps even people who sense that there’s something seriously wrong with an immigration system that threatens to replace the historic majority population of this county, lack the ideas to adequately express their concerns. 

Even in Bible-believing churches, it’s a rare day that you will ever hear any overt criticism of the RCCS or its false gospel.  It’s a rare day indeed that you’ll hear the pope identified as the Antichrist of the New Testament in plain language of the sort used in the original Westminster Confession of Faith.   

At a Bible study, I once brought up that Rome teaches the real presence of Christ in the mass.  Now this being one of the most important doctrines of Rome, I would have thought that this would be a non-controversial statement.  But it wasn’t.  There were some people in my Bible study who actually defended Rome, denying that Rome teaches this doctrine that it very clearly does teach.  I got the distinct sense that some were embarrassed that I had even brought up the point.  And it wasn’t even as if I’d called the pope Antichrist!  He is.  But I simply brought up what Rome herself teaches in her own words and found myself met with resistance in a Protestant Bible study.   

If Protestants won’t teach and believe the Reformation doctrine of Antichrist and refuse to criticize Rome for its many soul-destroying and blasphemous teachings, how can we possibly expect anyone else to do so?  This is our fight.  We’re it.  If we don’t get the job done, who will?   

Second, speaking out against Rome feels strange.  We don’t see others doing it, so maybe we start to think calling out Antichrist and his Harlot Church is a sort of social “no go” zone.  We’re told as children that you don’t talk about religion and politics. And talking about the evil of political Romanism is both of those things at once.  It’s easier to pretend not to notice what’s going on and talk instead about the weather or sports or something like that. 

Third, we can’t handle the truth.  One suspects that there are Protestants who have a sense that there is something extraordinarily, preternaturally evil about Rome, but they don’t want to go there.  They prefer willful blindness to the evil of the RCCS rather than doing a little research and reading on their own.  It’s easier for us to play hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil rather than look at the situation as it is.  Because if we know what Rome in truth is, how can we not speak out against it?  And that’s dangerous.   And we don’t want to go there.

I once had a Protestant minister say to me that he knew Rome was the Babylonian Harlot with a false gospel sending that sent people to hell, but he said he couldn’t speak out against it.  The implication seemed to be that it would cause so much controversy in his ministry that he would lose his job. 

The minister may well have been right.  But that’s not a good reason to avoid criticizing Rome.

Where Has Our Cowardice Gotten Us?

So, just where has our cowardice gotten us Protestants?  Has playing nice with Rome and calling the pope “Our Brother in Christ” mollified the pope or caused the Babylonian Harlot Church to stop kicking sand in our faces? 

No, it has not.

If nothing else, our cowardice and unwillingness to speak out against the unbiblical, unchristian, unholy evil of Rome’s philosophy, theology, politics, and economics have simply invited more blatant attacks. 

What’s going on with the migrant hordes assaulting our southern border is one of the most flagrant and in-your-face attacks by Rome this author has ever seen. 

To use another comparison, Protestants today are acting much more like Neville Chamberlain than Winston Churchill, begging Rome for “peach in our time” while the Pope and his henchmen in the church and his dutiful servant in the White House assault our southern border with what is probably the single largest wave of mass, illegal immigration in our nation’s history. 

Christian, do you think Rome is going to feel sorry for you?  Do you think the Antichrist Jesuit Pope will have mercy on you?  Do you think the US Conference of Catholic Bishops will call off their attack dogs?   

No. 

The more we remain silent, the more we will be attacked until all is consumed and we find ourselves strangers in the land built by our forefathers. 

Reprove, Correct, and Instruct

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul said enjoined them, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (or expose) them.”  In 2 Timothy we’re told by Paul that all scripture is profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction. 

It is high time, and well past time, for us Christians to get about our job of applying the Scriptures to the evil deeds of the RCCS.  And there are so many of them.

In the past, I have thought at times that I was being overly hard on Rome.  I think to myself that I had gone overboard in my criticism of their doctrine and their evil deeds, only to find out that I didn’t understand half of how evil Rome truly is.    

The flagrant, in your face evil of what’s being done to Texas with the flood of migrants, and the weak to nonexistent response from the American Protestant church is disgraceful.  Paul ordered the Corinthians to “in understanding be men.”  Yet far too often, we Protestants prefer to remain as children.

I realize I’ve been hard on my fellow believers in this post.  But seriously, enough is enough. 

It has come down to this.  Either God’s people trust in him, believe his Word, and apply it to Rome’s evil economic and political philosophy and practices, or we lose our nation. 

It’s really that simple.

May the Lord grant that we make the wise choice and follow him.